Seibertron.com Transformers Photo Challenge # 7: Film Noir

so as i look into the low key lighting
here's some movies which I didn't consider noirs and that are game.

- bladerunner
- the usual suspects (not the unusual suspects, but the movie tarantino waz inspired from)
.. but does this make the unusual suspects a noir too?
- Once upon a time in America.. and the godfather. I know they started a genre of their own but .. well...

do we need a more consistent definition of what is considered noir or not for us or can we just leave it at the broadest possible definition? lets just hope no one advocates for jurassic park to be on the list...

Susha wrote:so as i look into the low key lighting
here's some movies which I didn't consider noirs and that are game.

- bladerunner
- the usual suspects (not the unusual suspects, but the movie tarantino waz inspired from)
.. but does this make the unusual suspects a noir too?
- Once upon a time in America.. and the godfather. I know they started a genre of their own but .. well...

do we need a more consistent definition of what is considered noir or not for us or can we just leave it at the broadest possible definition? lets just hope no one advocates for jurassic park to be on the list...

I'm sorry, I forgot to be more specific; just the style and themes of old B&W "noir" films. I was aiming this one to more of a technical challenge then the previous ones.

You are welcome to recreate one, but I wasn't asking for that. There is a really cool thread for recreating films with bots that can be found here.

I'll go update the original post.

During my research I was surprised to see that Bladerunner was considered a film noir or a sci-fi noir as Wikipedia called it. Definitely one of my favorite movies; maybe there is some subconscious logic behind all this.

yeah i know the thread you speak of... and as I looked into this weeks photo at some point the two threads merged, and now I'm confused as to what is the precise difference between the two.

anyways i went and recreated a scene from a neo-noir (yep apparently we has dat 2..) but I still deem it to be game for this thread as the photo was taken with the low lightning technique.?

here it is




anyways, i guess i'll go back to the top of the thread again.. and read it carefully this time

I don't photograph my collection as much as I'd like to, but I couldn't resist trying my hand at a noir-esque photo op my favorite TF Femme Fatale.



I played around with grainy effect; part of me hates it, but part of me loves how old-timey it makes the pic looked. So I ran with it. Also my iPhone doesn't have a great camera, especially after the image has been blown up a bit. But I dig it.

hey just a thought about low lighting, i suppose all iconic images that come to mind are mostly portraits, just take marlon brandon in apocalypse now as an example. I think this might be tricky with tf toys. Firstly becoz strange angles make for strange shadows and it might be harder to actually see a face inbetween the rough edges and all those shadows.
secondly they are small. i use an old bud good cannon ios but even with a smartphone it might not be easy to get a good portrait of a tf toy face. Sure is for me since my collection is mostly legends scale.
well good luck if any1 tries

Susha wrote:hey just a thought about low lighting, i suppose all iconic images that come to mind are mostly portraits, just take marlon brandon in apocalypse now as an example. I think this might be tricky with tf toys. Firstly becoz strange angles make for strange shadows and it might be harder to actually see a face inbetween the rough edges and all those shadows.
secondly they are small. i use an old bud good cannon ios but even with a smartphone it might not be easy to get a good portrait of a tf toy face. Sure is for me since my collection is mostly legends scale.
well good luck if any1 tries

Challenge accepted! Mini challenges are something I've been thinking about for some time now and you nailed it on the head. So this week's mini challenge is brought to you by fellow Seibertroinian Susha.

I'll start things off.



BTW Susha, I'm loving that sharp shadow Grims is casting. Mind clueing me in on what movie that is!

Maximo, loving it, all of it. If you add some smoke I'll shut this challenge down

CarryTheOne wrote:Maximo, loving ot, all of it. If you add some smoke I'll shut this challenge down.

If you say so...


Although I don't think it looks as good as the original. The smoke doesn't have the same grain effect.

carytheone wrote:BTW Susha, I'm loving that sharp shadow Grims is casting. Mind clueing me in on what movie that is!

Maximo, loving it, all of it. If you add some smoke I'll shut this challenge down

nice portrait for megs! infact submit to the necrobot, if the living get a statue shouldn't the dead bots atleast get a portrait nah?

lov' the smell of napalm in da mornin, dat would be apocalypse now:)

and about my clue, how about this. 'once a smoker, always a smoker.'

so about the low lighting.

have you guys found an ideal angle for the light? For me it seemed to work better when the light was at the same hight of the figures. (0 degree angle?) well..the low lighting effect, but I had trouble getting the right focus. This seemed less so when the light was coming from higher up, but that made less of a low lighting effect.
I suppose it might have to do with my camera or maybe the set. I'm assuming a black background would help? I don't have the space but it would be nice to put together what we learned?

ciao

Susha wrote:so about the low lighting.

have you guys found an ideal angle for the light? For me it seemed to work better when the light was at the same hight of the figures. (0 degree angle?) well..the low lighting effect, but I had trouble getting the right focus. This seemed less so when the light was coming from higher up, but that made less of a low lighting effect.
I suppose it might have to do with my camera or maybe the set. I'm assuming a black background would help? I don't have the space but it would be nice to put together what we learned?

ciao

I've got one light parallel and to the left and one above and behind the figure. I'm still experimenting. As far as focus goes, I'm using manual focus, except for the portrait of Megatron. I used my cellphone and just a single light level with him.

I opened a post in another thread to discuss and share technique. You can find that thread here.

lov' the smell of napalm in da mornin, dat would be apocalypse now:)

I wasn't trying to recreate anything here, just goofing around because you referenced the movie.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Although I don't think it looks as good as the original. The smoke doesn't have the same grain effect.

I agree and stand corrected. Great shot though, definitely one of my favorites to come out of the TFPC.

I love your portrait of Megs there, Cary. I know the theme is noir and all, but what do you think about adding a little red just around his eyes to contrast the already great contrasts going on in that shot?

Hey hey peeps congrats to everyone and their very creative photos, very entertaining!

DONNY! Been missing ya; I was just wondering about you yesterday.

Got time to play this week?

carytheone wrote:DONNY! Been missing ya; I was just wondering about you yesterday.

Got time to play this week?

Hey Buuuuhdee!

Yeah I got some time, I actually have been getting my fix of TF goodness through Instagram for the past few weeks...decided to see how my Seibertron peeps are doing coz I miss ya(s) too!

well i gave it another try.. tries..
here;

Nemesis Maximo wrote:I love your portrait of Megs there, Cary. I know the theme is noir and all, but what do you think about adding a little red just around his eyes to contrast the already great contrasts going on in that shot?

Thanks. How about some fake lens flare effects instead?

Let me take a selfie...

carytheone wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:I love your portrait of Megs there, Cary. I know the theme is noir and all, but what do you think about adding a little red just around his eyes to contrast the already great contrasts going on in that shot?

Thanks. How about some fake lens flare effects instead?

Magnifico! What app are you using? Is it iOS compatible?

Magnus, your selfie is so HD and lovely. And Susha, I totally dig that first pic with Blaster.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Magnifico! What app are you using? Is it iOS compatible?

I used PicsArt on android. I'd be surprised if it wasn't on iOS. Someone only just clued me onto it yesterday.

I forgot, did you add that grain effect or was that just a product of your camera in low light?

carytheone wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Magnifico! What app are you using? Is it iOS compatible?

I used PicsArt on android. I'd be surprised if it wasn't on iOS. Someone only just clued me onto it yesterday.

I forgot, did you add that grain effect or was that just a product of your camera in low light?

Both; my phone takes decent pics, but once they're blown up to the size you see, their resolution goes south. So I raised the sharpness, which also makes the grains more pronounced. I took it and ran, you know?

I do want to participate, but dang, black and white? This style can be done in color to great result as well. I guess black and white does make it more accessible for participation though, so good with it on those grounds Will try to stop being lazy tonight or sometime soon.

nemesis max. ty

cyberpath... nice..

We R C'ing a trend? Hahaha, derp

CP and Cobonator, good stuffs!

Man, I am lovin' it! Great call on the theme this week, Cary! Some very emotional character pieces being displayed, the likes of which I can't say I've come across as far as Transformers is concerned.

Cyberpath wrote:

It's over, Prime.

indeed.
I really enjoyed this weeks challenge, even though with my gear it was hard to get a decent zoom in b&w so I'm looking forward to going back to colour. still the portrait thing is fun so maybe the next challenge can keep working on that? maybe something about character portraits? recreating portraits from paintings or recreating coronations from paintings? is dat 2 complex or?

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Man, I am lovin' it! Great call on the theme this week, Cary! Some very emotional character pieces being displayed, the likes of which I can't say I've come across as far as Transformers is concerned.

Thanks, I was a little worried about this one being a flop. It's been an exciting ride though! Let me throw a quick thanks out there for all the awesome submissions we had so far and I hope to see a few more before we close the door on this one.

Susha wrote:indeed.
I really enjoyed this weeks challenge, even though with my gear it was hard to get a decent zoom in b&w so I'm looking forward to going back to colour. still the portrait thing is fun so maybe the next challenge can keep working on that? maybe something about character portraits? recreating portraits from paintings or recreating coronations from paintings? is dat 2 complex or?

I've enjoyed this challenge as well, quite a lot actually. We've had some great submissions. We've already had a recreate art theme a few weeks back. I've got a fun donated portrait idea from fellow Seibertronian Cobotron waiting on the shelf as well.

Portraits are fun; you need a lens that can get close enough and you have to remember to blow the dust off your robot buddies. I'm working with a couple lens that have some sever limits to how close I can get to small things. Considering the level up thread seems dead, this place seems as good as anywhere else to share tips and tricks to buff them photography skills.

I want to focus more on fresh fun ideas and camera techniques, rather than recreating other forms of media. This challenge still has about a day and a half left to go, so I'll mull it over. This thread is about having fun, snapping pictures and maybe if we're lucky, we'll learn something along the way. I'm always open to suggestions and criticism.

That brings TFPC#7 to a close. We had some really awesome submissions. I was a little worried at first that this theme would be a miss, but it turned into one of my favorite challenges yet!

I pushed myself just a little out of my comfort zone and learned a little; I hope I wasn't the only one.

That was a lot of fun and as always, I want to thank everyone who participated

And with one photo challenged closed that can only mean one thing...

NEXT.

does it have to be pg18?

Howdy fellow Seibertronians and welcome to this week's Transformer photo challenge. This week's theme is a collab between Cobotron and myself.

Remember when we were just little tykes and all of our toys would just hang out together and we didn't have such strict shelving rules? Well this week's challenge is going to give us the opportunity to mix and match our toys again.

There are only two rules to this challenge; the picture(s) must feature a Transformer and must feature any other toy. That's right, I didn't say just action figures (they are of course welcomed). Let your imagination run wild! Any scenes or styles are welcomed.

Because the holidays are approaching and because this is a fairly open ended challenge; we are going to run this one for two weeks to give everyone plenty of time to participate. TFPC#8 will run from 11/15/15 to 11/29/15. Let's take our time and post some really fun stuff.

Submission post use TFPC #8 in the subject line. Non submitters, please feel free to join the conversation. Multiple submissions are welcomed and encouraged!

And remember to keep your browsers pointed to Seibertron.com for the latest Transformer news, the largest galleries and the most fun you can have this side of a space bridge.

Susha wrote:NEXT.

does it have to be pg18?

Yes. As do all things on seibertron.com

I'm pretty excited for this challenge, I'm bursting with ideas. Unfortunately I'm away from my collection this week. So expect to see a lot of my favorite road dog, Swerve.

This entry straddles the line between photo challenge and my own personal series: On the road with Swerve.

gave it a try wasn't sure about it.. will try something else but as it seemed unpolite to leave carytheone all alone i'll post this too.

Hey Susha I'm feeling it and I appreciate the comradery. Your well within the rules and feel free to post more.

Very clever actually and along the same lines as another post I'd like to make.

Susha, that's quite the "Gathering".

TF/TMNT COLLABO!!!!!!!!!!!

are the turtles talking to bots into hacking pizza ut?

itscramtastic wrote:Turtle Power!

Cowabunga!

Cram, you got any TF:TM/TMNT?

carytheone wrote:Remember when we were just little tykes and all of our toys would just hang out together and we didn't have such strict shelving rules?

Nope. Even as a kid I kept my toylines seperate. The MotU stuff on one shelf, ThunderCats on another, Transformers had several to themselves.


Aw damn someone already did TMNT/TFs though to be fair mine was gonna be the recent movie versions of both franchises so I can still do it I guess. Or maybe I'll try something a bit different. I'm a bit of a stickler for scale though and not many of my figures are in scale with others.

Here's a quick one. Don't know if it counts since Death's Head is technically a Transformers character but the figure is from a Marvel toyline. Simple revamp of an old photo I took last year. Death's Head about to repeat Marvel UK history by blowing up G1 Bee with a big gun, but is unaware of a more hardcore alternate universe incarnation of Bee behind him with an even bigger gun.

carytheone wrote:

itscramtastic wrote:Turtle Power!

Cowabunga!

Booyakashaaaa!!

Cobotron wrote:Cram, you got any TF:TM/TMNT?

Never picked up the new movie TMNT, but it would be cool if someone did post them with AoE figures..and all of my G1 TMNT are in my parents attic, which is blocked for access by a garage full of boxes

itscramtastic wrote:Never picked up the new movie TMNT, but it would be cool if someone did post them with AoE figures.

(my photographic and comicstrip skills suck but there we go)

Hey Carnivius, welcome to the party. Good stuffs you got there. Death's Head works for me and don't worry about using the same things as someone else, it sure wouldn't stop me. Also don't worry about photo skills, stepping up to the plate is what matters here.

Keep 'em coming

Carnivius_Prime wrote:

itscramtastic wrote:Never picked up the new movie TMNT, but it would be cool if someone did post them with AoE figures..

(my photographic and comicstrip skills suck but there we go)

I'm glad you picked up my hint Carnivus!! Awesome stuff

Slightly off-topic: has anyone seen the "History of TMNT featuring Leonardo" multipack at ToysRUs?! It looks amazing, and took a lot of effort NOT to buy it!! It's on my list to buy at some point